Capital Ships
A 'Capital Ship, '''formerly called a Flagship, is the most powerful ship of a faction, several times larger than any normal ship with the firepower and hull strength to match. To balance this you may only have two of them equipped at a time. .]] Overview Capital Ships can be found either as random encounters at nodes or at the central node of a faction Base, one ship per each 100% of millitary power (starting from 0 Capital Ships at power < 100%). A red drone symbol inside a circle indicates a boss encounter. Capital Ships are extremely dangerous, possessing a large amount of hit points and usually a wide array of weapons more effective than the garden variety kind. Fighting them is not recommended unless you have a large fleet or a smaller, extremely overleveled one. Beyond the first few stars, Capital Ships will always have a fleet for backup, so you not only need to survive beating it, but also its reinforcements. Defeating Capital Ships rewards you with ~3000 - 4000 credits, a large amount of experience, research points for the faction, crafting ingredients for that faction (and star ingredients if it is a double veteran unit), and high level equipment. There are fourteen different Capital Ships, one for each faction, and two Christmas exclusive neutral ones. As with all ships, if a Capital Ship is destroyed but its drones are not, the drones go rogue and will attack any ships in range, including the enemy ships. As Capital Ship drones are usually equal in strength to normal fighters, this can make the rest of the encounter much easier if you keep out of range. Just sit back and watch as the enemy blows itself up. Double veteran Capital Ships come with extra abilities, such as an afterburner for bursts of speed. Specific details will be given below by faction. Capital Ships Leviathan As is common for Veniri faction ships, this big flying saucer is fond of Pulse Cannons with two large forward long range ones (namely a pair of Heavy Pulse Cannons), a better turning rate than most other Capital Ships and two Scout MK2 drones with annoyingly accurate long range Pulse Cannon M2, but a lower than normal turning rate. Interestingly enough, the Capital Ship by itself is actually one of the easiest to fight; fast missile skirmishers like a speed-enhanced Zephyr can rather easily avoid its forward guns and hammer it down. The main difficulty comes down to the drones. The drones are two Scout MK2s with TU-assisted Pulse Cannon M2. Therefore, the drones have a high accuracy rate and hit hard. Their turning rate is equal to Non-veteran Scout MK2 ships, however because their module don't receive random buff like the ship version, most of the time they are appeared slower. Although they're considered as drones, their health is very high: Shooting them down won't be easy. Therefore, it is recommended to shoot down the Leviathan first, as trying to destroy the drones first will result in the Leviathan creating new drones, the Capital Ship is equipped with a Small Repair Bot so staying away from the leviathan may cause it to start repairing. After destroying the Leviathan, take advantage of the fact that the drones will go rogue after their mothership is destroyed to heal. Double veteran Leviathan is almost the same, however has higher hit points, velocity and turn rate, a drone factory that makes taking the Capital Ship down first paramount, and a Repair Bot. An Afterburner-equipped Assassin ship with high burst damage is the best option for taking this one down, ideally approaching from behind it. Megalodon Bushrak faction ship, this flying triangle uses missiles. A LOT of missiles, of several different sizes and speeds, including some slow big ones that will really, really hurt if they hit you. At close range, it may use forward-firing laser to attack. Speed is a must when facing this Capital Ship, as its missiles will rip most ships to shreds at close range and it has side-mounted missiles to ward off attempts to flank it. You'll need a Missile Skirmisher at least as fast as a Scout (forward speed 7 in the Equipment window) to be able to comfortably evade the missiles while circling it to fire, otherwise your only option is a high level pulse gunship to shoot through the missile barrages into the ship itself. An afterburner will allow for a high-speed-strafing run. Another option is to use a ship with AoE weapon like Pulsar (eg. Dragonfly, with Pulsar in place of Stasis Field) to prevent the medium range missiles , BUT THE SHIP SHOULD POSSESS HIGH REACTOR OUTPUT. A strong close range firepower or long range attacks are prefered. Third option is a stealth ambusher like a Stealth-equipped Paladin; sneak up behind it to near point-blank range then let rip. Fourth option is a railgun Excalibur. Double veteran Megalodon packs 5 of the AI-only Heavy Missile Launcher M4s. You have several viable options to prevent being obliterated in the blink of an eye: * A pulse cannon gunship that can shoot out the missile salvos while on the approach * A burst damage Assassin approaching from behind * A fast ship about 15/15 to do a loop just before they hit to evade. A Thunder equipped with railguns, Inertial stabilizers, and barrel satellites is an excellent option here. * A teleporter to teleport behind the missiles, or just add a cloaking system to your favorite ship. When building this ship for player use, there are many viable options ranging from drone carriers to ultra-DPS missile ships. Due to the ability to pack in up to 6 HMLM2s/M3s before equipping any satellites, this Capital Ship can do more damage at long range than almost any other ship in the game. It is considered one of the most effective Capital Ships, and far easier to obtain than Capital Ships like Thor or Doomstar. Thor As with most Korerans ships, the Capital Ship has a fondness for torpedoes, specifically in the form of a large swarm of torpedo drones. If the player gets past that, it will fire a Homing Stasis Field bolt to paralyze your ship and then a stream of missiles to destroy it. It has Impact Armor so all Kinetic-type weapons have very limited effect on it. It can fire the stasis bolt fast enough to prevent your ship from ever recovering, so getting hit will usually mean your destruction. It takes a ship with at least forward speed 10 to evade it. Using flares against this ship is the best you can do, as all of his weapons are homing, so affected by jammers. Destroy it with one ship immediately, because it has a Repair Bot. Even when it has 1% of his armour left, it can easily be max-health when you arrive with your next ship. Alternate (and recommended) option: a non-kinetic stealth ambusher such as a Paladin or Zion. Double veteran Thor has a significantly beefed-up drone range. To avoid being pecked to death before you get anywhere near it a stealthed Assassin-type ship is your only option. Kraken An upscaled version of the Tarantula fighter, the Taraniak Capital Ship comes armed with a massive antimatter bomb (Heavy Anti-matter Bomb M2), two forward Heavy Lightning Cannons, and a long-range Heavy Stasis Field. It also launches a pair of MK1 Drones. It's slow but has a good turning radius, and its antimatter bomb makes strafing a must. Like most Taraniak ships, it has a Warp Drive for short-range teleportation and it will use the module to jump next to you to detonate the bomb. Pretty average VS any ship, however double veterans although having no drone bays have superior mobility and accuracy, and a better type of warp drive(Green Warp Drive), prefering an agressive approach to combat. A high DPS ship with high speed or an EMP Torpedo are necessary to take it down. A railgun Excalibur with its weapons set to have two separate salvos (to get around the warp drive jumps) or a high burst damage Assassin will make short work of it. ''Battle strategy - Very easy to beat with a Drone carrier (even freighter ) with M54 Drones. (This goes for all Taraniak ships) Oracle A massive, uniform flying saucer. Though slow and plodding, like all Sayjix ships its aim is second to none. It has a quartet of Improved M22 Stasis Drone to paralyze opponents so it can attack with its Heavy Pulse Cannon. At extremely close range, it has a high-power Laser Beam. It can resist attacks for a short while thanks to a full-cover Energy Shield, though this has the effect of diminishing its reactor capacity. The shield drops once its energy capacity drops below 20%, allowing you to let rip into it. Double veteran Oracle also has TONS of HP, energy and heat absorbers (totalling up to 77% energy and heat resistance), which will guarantee you'll waste most of your damage for powering his shields. It has no resistance against kinetic damage. Railguns by itself will do but activating ECM jammer first before attacking with pulse weapons will do. Overlord A variant on the Bushrak Capital Ship, the Jurgans Capital Ship is one of the trickier ones to fight. It has slow but powerful Heavy Quantum Torpedoes, a powerful forward long-range laser, defensive mid range rapid fire Mass Driver M2 turrets on its back corners and two very accurate and very damaging Embryo Mk2 drones packing long range Mass Driver M2s. This lethal combination of weaponry makes it difficult to approach from any direction. Staying away from this ship is a must, as its arsenal can't be shot down like its weaker counterpart. One possible option for attacking it is a series of brute-force suicide runs either with fast Kamikaze ships packing Quantum Detonators, or a tough heavy gunship like a Destroyer putting a long salvo of shots into it before dying; keep in mind that Capital Ships always have smaller support ships warp in after them (with the exception of Capital Ships very close to the home base), so you have to be able to beat those too. An afterburner assisted strafe with a Javelin works well, though it helps to have a repair drone to heal up between runs. One of the best options is a railgun Excalibur. Another good strategy is to equip a ship with some Heavy Proton Torpedoes, a targeting unit and a couple M2 Automated Reloaders. Find a "sweet spot" where you can barely hit it; then gently strafe to one side. If done right, you can take the Overlord down with just one properly equiped ship without taking any damage. Using Heavy Missile Launcher M2 is also recommended. Double veteran Overlord is another Satan's creation - his Plasma Multi-Cannons and Mass Driver M2s wont let you come near to hit, while his Afterburner will let him hit you. Pretty far-shooting, regens a lot, compared to your damage. Fork or Missile Skirmisher required. Colossus The Zumbalari Capital Ship is an asteroid converted into a Capital Ship. This Capital Ship has a pair of fast-firing Interceptor drones, several Heavy Missile Launchers, and close-range mix of Neutron Blaster M2s and Mass Driver M2s. This is one of the easier Capital Ships to beat, as its drones can be avoided and the Capital Ship itself is easy to flank; all of its weapons are forward-firing only and the medium missiles don't have a very good turning rate so if you can get in close behind it you can inflict devastating damage to it. Double veteran Colossus has a gravity field which drags you near while his weapons push you away for a deadly combo. Fork or Missile Skirmisher or any mid-range ships with immense DPS with cloaking system will work to wreck the Capital Ship to pieces. Zeus A departure from the bone-like Neganari design, this giant flying saucer features 2 long-range Heavy Missile Launcher M2s and a medium range Heavy Laser Beam M1, with a pair of Veteran Spike drones with noticeably high damage and speed to engage foes. That, however, is not what makes it dangerous. Its laser tracks in a frontal 180° arc with perfect accuracy and it has a very fast turning rate, so expect to take damage whenever you get within pulse cannon range...if you even can. It uses distinctly evasive tactics, constantly moving away from you while lobbing missiles and letting its Spike drones do its work for it and it has decent forward speed. You will definitely find this to be one of the more annoying opponents until you can get heavily-equipped Afterburner or inertial damper utilizing ships to go after it. Your best option is a burst-damage Assassin ship. You can also try capturing its drones and letting them do the work for you. Tartarus This giant red triangle is the big brother to the Daazen drone ships found in abandoned stations. It uses a powerful Heavy Vampiric Ray M2, with longer range and damage, and has a Stealth Field. Because of the tracking properties of the ray, the drain on your health is constant as long as you're in range. It's deceptively fast for its size, able to move with about the same speed and agility as a heavy fighter. Defeating this monster boils down to managing to bring it down faster than it can heal itself from your ships. If you can't move fast enough to get out of its attack range, it will heal itself nearly as fast as you can damage it. A heavy bombardment from a well-equipped gunship or long range attacks are preferable, though its Stealth Field will mitigate the effectiveness of missiles. Double veteran Tartarus also posseses a Red Warp Drive to quickly approach you and a Cloaking System to protect himself from your attacks, while striking you after. The best option is actually the most brain-dead; a brute force slugfest. With all said and done its one weapon actually doesn't do that much damage, unless you use Resistance build, due to the ray No-type property. A heavy gunship like an Excalibur plus Dart Satelites filled with target-assisted Neutron Blasters is your best option; let it warp into range on you in front of you, fire an initial salvo to trigger the cloak field and then when it reappears let rip. It usually doesn't re-cloak during an attack approach, so just hammer it down. A similar option is to equip a gunship with an emphasis on energy capacity, and bind all cannons to the same action key as a frontal energy shield. This will neutralize the vampiric ray while allowing you to fire on the Tartarus freely. Doomstar This large Capital Ship of the Unknown Faction, capable of housing up to 24 drones in it's massive hull, is the epitome of the Capital Ship class. Armed with a Death Ray, a built-in Targeting unit, and in the case of the Double Veteran, housing quite a few M81 Repair/Attack drones, this Capital Ship is incredibly evil and hard to beat. Drones are one of the best way to destroy this Capital Ship, but even that will take a while. Using an assassin build high explosive burst damage Capital Ship will also do the trick easier. Cloaking System is recommended because it's the only way to evade the Death Ray. Prevent being faced by the Doomstar if possible to conserve energy. Dreadnought The Dreadnought has a much more sleek look compared to the other more heavily sci-fi Capital Ships. It is very powerful and extremely tanky if built correctly. It uses multiple auto-targeting C slots equipped with powerful Ion Cannons. The double veteran has 2 very powerful AI exclusive drones that can both heal with its Repair Ray and damage with its Rocket Launcher M2. All this makes it one of the hardest Capital Ships to beat in AI hands. Its even arguably harder than the Doomstar. The best counter to this ship at the moment is to sit outside of its range with a ship that can rapidly fire multiple HMLM2's. The repeated blasts will damage the Dreadnought and destroy the drones as they spawn. This can be accomplished with a Stalker with 3 HMLM2's (one on a satellite) or a Megalodon Capital Ship. A Thor or Zeus can also work. Or you could use Stealth Field and Plasma Throwers to attack it from the rear. Chariot A new ship introcduced in version 0.14.2, the Chariot has a 360° 3x3 C weapon slot, making it able to use the Holy Canon introduced in the same version. Unfortunately, those slots are used by locked 3 Firework canons, making Oracle the only ship capable of using the Holy Canon. The veteran uses the Holy cannon and afterburner, and the double veteran is faster, and with a red warp drive. Santa Claus Introduced at the same time as Chariot, this Flaship is massive, with an incredible firepower: a 4x4 S weapon slot in the front, and two 360° 3x3 C slots, with a large drone capacity. The veteran version has a large number of shield points, uses two acid missiles, a plasma web and six firework canon. the double veteran loses the shield and the plasma web to use a red warp drive, and six Santa Drones introduced in the same version, these drones use the same Lighting cannon as veteran Kraken, and will seek you within a really long distance at a really fast speed. Wormship Implemented in update 0.15, the Wormship is the capital ship of The Swarm. It resembles a gigantic space-worm and posesses a "tail" consisting of several tail modules, each one increasing the ship's resistance against all 3 damage types by a moderate amount. When the tail is fully intact, the ship has 100% resistance against (almost) all incoming damage, making it invincible. The destruction of tail pieces is therefore top priority before attempting to deal any damage to the head. Both veteran versions make use of heavy vampiric rays, heavy anti-matter bombs and M41 drones with a long range of detection. Construction Details Category:Ships